It is becoming increasingly more common for today's music performance to feature a solo artist or a small group as opposed to an ensemble of multiple musicians. In some cases, the solo artist or small group may have a general lack of desire to perform as part of a (larger) group such as an ensemble. In other cases, the solo artist or small group may be constrained from performing in a full ensemble for various reasons, including performance space, size of equipment, cost of equipment, or cost of hiring additional ensemble performers.
In an ensemble, each musician is tasked with a particular set of instruments including percussion, guitar, bass, keyboard, brass, woodwinds, strings or the like. In contrast, a solo artist or small group may need to perform multiple instruments. These solo artists (e.g., guitarists or pianists) or small groups often wish to complement their main instrument of choice by filling out their performance with additional equipment. Equipment traits such as versatility, quality, and portability are of particular importance to the solo artist or small group, who may be largely self-sufficient concerning the purchasing, hauling, and performing of the instrument.
Often, these individuals' needs are filled by a percussion instrument, which can provide melody, rhythm, and complementing depth to the music during their performances. Such instruments, however, are not without limitations. For instance, a percussion instrument capable of producing multiple sounds—like a drum set—or a set of multiple percussion instruments may be too cumbersome for a single performer to manage or too large for the venue being played. This is particularly problematic to the performer desiring a “kick” or bass drum sound coupled with a snare sound for his performance. In contrast, a more portable instrument—like a set of bongo drums, a djembe drum, a woodblock, a snare, a shaker, or a set of shakers—creates only a single sound or a set of sounds, and are further constrained in the overall sound and tone frequency range of the sounds they can emit.
Smaller percussion instruments are also not generally amplified, meaning its complementing sound could be lost in a larger venue. There are a few percussion devices known to the current art that are amplified, though, including cigar box stomp boxes. Current cigar box stomp boxes, however, are not constructed with proper materials to create sufficiently deep sounds as desired by the performer, nor designed to emit sound acoustically for a performance in a smaller venue. Further, other types of stomp boxes currently known in the art are limited in the variety of generated sounds, and are not able to be played acoustically due to limitations in size, shape, and general design.
Current percussion instruments known to the art are also generally limited to being played in a particular manner. For example, bongo drums, djembe drums, and shakers are designed played solely with one's hands. By way of another example, kick bass drums and stomp boxes currently known in the art are designed to be played solely with one's feet. By way of another example, woodblocks and snare drums are designed to be played solely by striking the instruments with percussion striking devices such as mallets, sticks, brushes, or rods. While there are percussion instruments that may be played with both hands and feet, including a drum set, such percussion instruments may be too large for the solo artist or small group to manage effectively both during transportation and at the venue during the performance.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a percussion device that cures the defects of the prior art and provides a solution to the foreseen needs of the performer desiring to complement their main performance with additional sounds. For instance, the percussion device should easily implemented by the performer. Additionally, the percussion device should provide a means of filling out performances without hindering the playing of the main-featured instrument of the performance (e.g. a solo guitarist or a solo pianist would need his hands unencumbered by the percussion device).
Further, it would be desirable that the percussion device be versatile. For instance, the percussion device should be designed to resonate like an acoustic instrument for small venues, but should also provide a means for amplification as needed for larger venues. Additionally, the percussion device should be able to emit multiple sounds, increasing what possibilities are available to fill out the performance while limiting the actual amount of equipment needing transport and monitoring.
Further, it would be desirable that the percussion device be portable and able to be integrated with other performance equipment. For instance, a performer may not have the means to—or perhaps not want to—transport large percussion equipment, meaning the percussion device should have a more mobile profile. Additionally, the percussion device should be able to easily interface with—or at least not inhibit the placement of—the performer's other equipment, including amplifiers and microphone stands.
Further, it would be desirable to have the versatile and portable nature of the percussion device be possible without loss of the emitted sounds' quality. For example, the percussion device should be designed in such a way so as to maximize resonance, tone frequency range, and volume of all emitted sounds.